we sent kate hardie—buckley to the resort of hodrusa—hamre to find out more. to the 2018 gold panning championships, a highly competitive gathering where emotions are running high. more than 500 competitors from 30 countries are here, hoping to strike gold. so, how does it all work? organisers fill a bucket with sand and hide tiny specks of gold in it, flown all the way from california. then competitors race to find all of the flakes. each bucket will contain the same number. for every one you miss, five minutes is added to your time. would you like to hop in to trough12? eager to try it myself, i signed up for a lesson with british world champion daisy thurkettle. so, the first thing you're gonna need to do is pour that right into the centre of the pan and make, like, a bit ofa mountain. and then you're gonna do big, flat circles. 0k. yes, right under the water like that. perfect! what's really gonna help you with this is the specific gravity of gold — it's about six times heavier than everything else in your pan, so that means the gold really wants to hit th